“In any case the organizers and financial backers of the project have already made so many concessions to the opposition as to render the whole idea pointless. For example, they agreed to change the name of the Center from the tell tale "Cordova House" to the utterly bland street address of "Park 51". They denied that they are building a mosque in the first place. And they reassured everyone concerned that no casual passer-by would not recognize the Center for what it is from its outside appearance. In other words, no minarets and no revealing Islamic architectural or decorative features. Given these demeaning and humiliating concession, it would be more dignified to relocate the Center to a spot where there will be no need to conceal its identity in such a ridiculous manner.”

Sadik Al-Azm

Philisopher / Author Princeton University

Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm (Arabic: صادق جلال العظم‎) (born in Damascus, Syria, in 1934) is a Professor Emeritus of Modern European Philosophy at the University of Damascus in Syria. He has been a visiting professor in the department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University until 2007. His area of specialization was the philosophy of Immanuel Kant with a more current emphasis upon the Islamic world and its relationship to the West, and he has contributed to the discourse of "Orientalism".[citation needed] He is also known as a human rights advocate and a champion of intellectual freedom and free speech.[1]
Al-Azm was schooled in Beirut, Lebanon earning the B.A. in Philosophy from the American University of Beirut (1957). Al-Azm earned the M.A. (1959) and Ph.D. (1961) from Yale University majoring in Modern European Philosophy.
He won the Erasmus Prize, with Fatema Mernissi and Abdulkarim Soroush. In 2004, he also received the Dr. Leopold-Lucas-Preis of the Evangelical-Theological Faculty of the University of Tűbingen. In 2005 he became a Dr. Honoris Causa at Hamburg University.

Author's Articles

While trying to follow, at great distance, the news and sharp controversies about the project to construct an Islamic Center and Mosque near Ground Zero in New York City, another telling occurrence deflected my attention in the direction of Washington, DC. On August 28, a host of right wing Americans, neo-conservative crowds and TeePartyUSA multitudes […]